Pandora and the Flying DutchmanUnavailable theatrically for many years, MGM's lush romantic melodrama from 1951 has been painstakingly restored to rich-hued celluloid glory.
Screen goddess Ava Gardner is the incendiary Pandora of the title; a woman who inspires desperate passions in the besotted suitors determined to woo her, among them a British racing car driver, Stephen Cameron (Nigel Patrick) and a Spanish matador, Juan Montalvo (played by real-life torero turned actor, Mario Cabre).
Just when it seems Cameron may have won the day in the romance stakes, a mysterious yacht sails into view, with aboard a brooding Dutchman (James Mason) whose inscrutable countenance exerts a beguiling fascination upon the mercurial Pandora.
Shot in gorgeous locations in Catalonia, Lewin's deliriously romantic fantasy drama is a Technicolor reverie in the hands of famed cinematographer Jack Cardiff (The Red Shoes, Black Narcissus).
Screens in a superbly restored 35mm print.
Limited season exclusive to ACMI.
"Lewin conjures a celluloid equivalent of the canvasses of De Chirico and Dali - passionate, classical, mysterious and surreal all at once"
Time Out
